I started my career in commercial art at Washington University in St. Louis. From there I landed a job at Exodus Design Studio. Eventually I went to Steven Blives and Associates, and after a few years, set out on my own to pursue my love of illustration. Since then, with an airbrush as my main medium, I created illustration for advertising campaigns, posters, commemorative stamps, magazine covers, packaging, and billboards for companies across the United States. (Below you can see a list of some of the clients I’ve had the pleasure of working with over the years.)

Then, just before the new millennium, the United States Postal Service commissioned me to create a block of fifty commemorative stamps entitled, “Greetings from America.” Several years later I designed a block of forty stamps called, “Wonders of America,” released in May of 2006. In all, I have created well over a hundred stamps for the USPS.

Around Y2K, I chose to retire my airbrush and throw myself into the digital world by purchasing a Mac computer. With my first project in this totally new digital medium, I was amazed to see how much I could retain the look of my airbrush work I had spent years developing. And with the advent of new software, came the possibility of new creative expressions such as animation and motion graphics… and writing! Check out my new novel from Blackstone Publishing: The Cabin on Souder Hill.

A client of mine saw a connection between my name, Busch, and my medium for creating illustration, the “airbrush,” and the name for my studio was born—airbusch1. (the numeral “1” came about because of a Yahoo snafu—long, boring story—but I liked the “1” so I kept it.)

Though the name of my studio has remained, my airbrush is long gone. And if you are wondering what an airbrush is, I’ll give you a brief description. Basically, it’s a very fine paint sprayer the size of a pen, capable of incredible detail and amazingly smooth color transitions. Using a combination of friskets and acetate cutouts, and a steady hand, I was able to create nearly photographic results, while still retaining an “illustrated” quality to my work. The style lent itself to many ad treatments where a touch of “realism” or even “surrealism” was needed. The airbrush defined my style.

Because of that, it was a bit frightening to move to the computer. But with my first Mac came an amazing new realization. Not only could I achieve the look that had kept me busy for years, but now I could do so much more. At first I created all my work in Photoshop. Eventually I moved to other software applications, 3D programs such as Vue and Cinema 4D. Video editing programs like Final Cut Pro, Motion, and After Effects. This opened a whole new and exciting world for me—Animation and Motion Graphics. Please have a look at my Animation page.